Digital ad-spend to hit $137.53bn in 2014

Spending on ads served to Internet-connected devices including desktop and laptop computers, mobile phones and tablets will reach $137.53
billion this year, according to eMarketer’s latest estimates of worldwide paid media spending.

Digital spend will be up 14.8 per cent over 2013 levels, according to the forecast, and will make up just over one-quarter of all paid media spending worldwide. That’s up from about one-fifth of spending in 2012, and it is set to rise to nearly one-third of the total by the end of our forecast period, when advertisers around the world will invest $204.01 billion in digital.

The US is still the single biggest spender on digital ads, with North America thus the highest-spending region. Nearly two in five digital ad dollars this year will come from advertisers in North America, compared with 28.6 per cent in Asia-Pacific—where share is actually dropping slightly. Western Europe accounts for nearly one-quarter of all digital spending around the world, and other regions make up just a small share.

Total media ad spending worldwide will grow at a significantly slower pace, hovering around 5 per cent growth for the next several years. eMarketer expects that by 2018, total media spending will reach $656.3 billion.

While the US is the highest spender on digital media in terms of absolute dollars, it’s the UK that sports the highest share of total media spending on digital channels, at 47.5 per cent expected this year. That compares with 40.1 per cent in second-place Denmark, 37.5 per cent in third-place Australia, and 27.9 per cent in the US.